The Reader You Wish to Be
The Reader You Wish to Be
Wilbert Salgado
My dear Spanish high school and college teachers knew how to dissect the poems from most esoteric writers, yet they seldom wrote a meaningful poem of their own. My business administration English students knew how to run successful companies in the country, yet only the secretaries and clerks succeeded in the entrepreneurship task I assigned to them. Most adults know sodas are activators of cancer, yet they cannot refrain from drinking them frequently. Well-educated people seem to have read enough to become interpreters of what others have done and said. However, most fail to solve a simple problem related to the very issue they claim to know the most—they don´t apply their knowledge to produce something valuable. Why? Because of what they read for.
I have met a few colleagues who boast the vast repertoire of writers and theories they have read. They gather in their click to list characters, to regurgitate verses, or to quote exegetists of those writers. It seems as if the act of reading for them entails devouring hundreds of books and then finding self-gratification on being the champion at having read more than others. They simply read for entertainment. Their peers are those who know about the same topic and who compete to pull out from up their sleeves the oddest piece of information.
Once I happened to be teaching a bit of punctuation in an introductory composition class. I asked the students to choose a poet to analyse his punctuation. They readily picked our literature arrow head—Ruben Dario. I was impressed at how quick they could recite his poems, say the titles of his poems, and mention the dates of his books publications. I was surrounded by large crowd of Dario connoisseurs. Or so they thought.
Yet again I have met a second group of readers. These are theacademicians. They read to seek the truth—the pure leasure of gaining knowledge. They partake in more rigorous conversations with. Other academicians. They write but only after they have mastered the language of their group—fellow researchers. As opposed to readers who read for entertainment, they know truth is partial and quite relative. Their pursuit is to understand and then to contribute to a topic.
After showing some rules for the marks on the board, I was swift to say that I had seen some dubious use of punctuation in RD´s writing. It caused such an uproar as if I had called a Japanese a Chinese. My claim came from research on grammar and punctuation rules in Latin-based languages. Italian and English punctuation seem have been researched the most. Spanish is still a land of opportunities for punctuation aficionados. I wanted my students to do some comparative analysis and prove me wrong or side with me in my claim. Instead, I ended up with the copy of a complaint letter from an adolescent to the dean of academics for my boldness at insulting our greatest cantor.
A third group of readers should catch our attention. These people read to find a solution to a puzzle. Their sole purpose is to answer a specific research question which will bring forth a specific benefit. They resort to various any publication and late do experiments to find the value of the results. They are not interested in the nature of the information or on the milieu it was produced; they want to tap into the practicality of it to solve a real-life issue.
I have been a chess player for over a decade. One of my latest realization was that I did not win enough games to move up the ladder because I used brute force only. I decided to read books on openings. I happened to find Owens´ defence. As I applied the moves, I realized there was a dominance of the white corridors for the black player and that went against white when it opened with e4. I won many games. However, I was losing when white started with d4. I intuited that there got to be an opening that favour against d4. It was the Nimzo-Indian defence. It takes over the black corridors. By reading about these two openings and practicing plentifully, I solved at least one of my chess questions—the game is a about dominating any color lane once white has advanced his fist pawn.
The reason why my former teachers, former students, and most adults do not use what they knew well to produce something of their own or to stop polluting their bodies with sodas is that they have read for one purpose only –or two probably. It takes to live with the wolves to think like the wolves. Most readers belong to the club of entertained masses. Some have an exclusive membership in the club of colleges. And only a few venture into the club of action. Each of you is to become a member of any club of your preference—your membership fee is to read for a purpose. Just keep in mind that at the end of the day, you are what you read for.
* Images from Yahoo Images
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